In the field of sailboat racing a designated course is set up prior to the race using a number of different buoys. During the course of the race the boats are expected to sail around the buoys in a particular order, concluding the rate at a finish line buoy defined by an invisible line between the finish line buoy and a race committee boat or race committee location such as a dock, if the race committee is located on land. During the process of setting up the buoys to defined the course, the buoys are often placed by using work boats that drive to a designated location and then release or anchor the racing buoy in place. As a result the buoys are often placed out on the course hours before the race starts. In the case of regattas (i.e. lengthy events where multiple races are held in a single day or days) the buoys can be out almost a half day before the final races start. Many types of races involve trying to place the buoys at a Windward and Leeward directions relative to the race committee position. However during the course of the day wind direction is constantly changing and will require the buoys to be repositioned manually by the persons on the work boats. It is desirable to reduce the time between course set up and the start of the race. It is also desirable to provide a system that will eliminate the need to manually reposition the buoys for a race.
Also in the maritime field navigational charts of bodies of water help boat operators know the approximate depth of the water at a specific latitude and longitude. However many navigational charts rely on old data, which at times can be decades if not centuries old. Also some bodies of water have never been charted and have no navigational charts. The reason for the outdated or on charted bodies of water is that it often times takes a large amount of resources to chart a body of water. Historically this was done by a charting boat surveying a body of water or a portion of a body of water, wherein the crew of the charting boat would take depth measurements a different points. More modern navigational charts are prepared using sonar technology where bodies of water are mapped by a sonar boat which requires a boat or vessel with a crew to navigate the body of water and collect the needed data from a sonar connected to the boat. For smaller bodies of water the above approaches are not always practical due to the expense and time needed to map the body of water, therefore navigational charts are sometimes unavailable. It is therefore desirable to develop new systems for charting bodies of water that do not require as many resources as the more traditional methods.